Wednesday, 19 July 2017

Leadership vs Followership

Tony Blair, the former Labour leader, published an interesting article the other day about the changing face of Brexit in which he argued that the 2017 general election result provides an opportunity for fundamentally reappraising the pros and cons of leaving the European Union (EU).

This was on any basis an extraordinary election, unique in recent British political experience and with major political consequence.

The country is deeply divided: between young and old; metropolitan and outside the cities; better off and worse off.

And the country is suffering from the state of its politics. This time last year we were the fastest growing economy in the G7. We are now the slowest. The international investment community is negative on us. The savings rate is at its lowest in 50 years. Incomes are stagnating. The international reputation of Britain is rapidly losing altitude. There is a daily drip of worrying news on Brexit. The Grenfell Tower tragedy sums up for many the sorry condition of our social cohesion.

There is a slightly anarchic feel to our politics intensified by the realisation that the Government is weak and drifting.

There is more followership than leadership.

We feel like a country which has lost its footing and is stumbling; but seemingly with no choice but to stagger on.

This is where everything has changed and nothing has changed.

The election result should enable a fundamental re-appraisal of Brexit. Large numbers of people voted to stop a Hard Brexit and rejected explicitly the mandate Theresa May was demanding.

Instead, both main parties remain wedded to leaving the Single Market.

Now we argue over long transitional periods, and complicated methods of re-creating new regulatory mechanisms with Europe, which essentially mean we will have to keep close to European regulation, when all such things do, is re-emphasise the inherent dangers of the whole venture.

I agree that if the will of the British people remains as it was last June, then Brexit will happen.

But, to state what in a less surreal world would be blindingly obvious, it is possible, that, as we know more about what Brexit means, our ‘will’ changes.

Our leaders should at least lead a proper debate about the options before us.

They should become the nation’s educators, engaging us, explaining to us, laying out every alternative and what it means.

Rational consideration of the options would sensibly include the option of negotiating for Britain to stay within a Europe itself prepared to reform and meet us half way.

The Macron victory changes the political dynamics of Europe. The members of the Euro zone will integrate economic decision-making. Inevitably, therefore, Europe will comprise an inner and outer circle. Reform is now on Europe’s agenda. The European leaders, certainly from my discussions, are willing to consider changes to accommodate Britain, including around freedom of movement.

Yet this option is excluded.

In the week before the election, my Institute along with Luntz Global Partners conducted a poll in France, Germany and the UK around attitudes to Europe, Brexit and politics.

The British people’s attitude to Europe is ambivalent.

They do think ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and for now there is no groundswell for a second referendum.

But, they want a strong relationship with Europe. A majority oppose Hard Brexit. The opposition to free movement of people, once you break it down, is much more nuanced. The French and Germans share some of the British worries, notably around immigration, and would compromise on freedom of movement.

There is no evidence that Britain wants to pay a high economic price for Brexit.

A majority would probably coalesce around a ‘Soft Brexit’.

However, the problem is that the difference between a Hard and a Soft Brexit has a very simple starting point: membership of the Single Market and Customs Union. If we stay within those rules of trade, where over 50 % of our exports go, then the economic damage of Brexit will be limited.

But, we will have to abide by the rules.

The political difficulties of this are evident. It would lead in short order to a scratching of the British collective head and feeling of ‘well, in that case, what's the point of leaving?’

On the other hand, if we do leave the Single Market and Customs Union, then it is also clear that the economic damage is potentially large. No one who has seriously examined these issues believes that a 3rd country FTA is remotely a substitute for membership of the Single Market.

A ‘Jobs First’ Brexit outside the Single Market is a contradiction in terms.

So when people blithely say ‘we will get roughly the same terms as we do now with the Single Market’, I literally know no one in the European system who believes this.

We have over-estimated, as ever, the weakness of Europe. Growth rates are recovering. Politics is stabilising. Yes many clouds remain – from Italian and Spanish banks to popular anger at cuts, low pay and immigration concerns. Europe is not out of the woods. But it thinks it sees a path out of those woods and our poll shows that French and Germans see Europe as a guide not an obstacle.

The 27 will basically stick together in defending the rules of the Single Market.

But we are all learning, as we proceed, the damage Brexit will do.

Europe knows it will be poorer and less powerful without us.

We know our currency is down around 12%; already jobs are going; there is not £350m a week more for the NHS; and we actually need most of the migrants who come to work in the UK.

On any basis, leaving is complex and will take years.

Brexit is the biggest political decision since the Second World War.

Given what is at stake, and what, daily, we are discovering about the costs of Brexit, how can it be right deliberately to take off the table the option of compromise between Britain and Europe so that Britain stays within a reformed Europe?

We are doing so because the Tories fear that if Brexit in some form does not happen, they will re-open the fissure within their Party.

For three decades this internal Conservative battle has wreaked havoc with the politics of the country rather as Empire Tariff debates did in the late 19th and early 20th C.

Meanwhile the true challenges of the country are unaddressed.

The legislative programme is dominated by Brexit to the virtual exclusion of anything else.

The Government may ask for ‘new ideas’ from all sides of politics but the reality is it has no bandwidth seriously to do anything other than Brexit.

It is not too late for the country to grip its own destiny, change the terms of the Brexit debate and turn its attention to the true challenges the nation faces.

This is where what happens to the Labour Party matters so much.

The ambiguity of Labour’s position on Europe may have helped us access both Remain and Leave votes, though I am dubious.

However, it can't last. If Labour continues to be for leaving the Single Market, and the signs are that it will, then we are essentially for the same policy as the Government.

This will become apparent to those who voted Remain. But more than that, it puts us in the same damaging position for the economy as the Tories; and in circumstances where we are also trying to end austerity through spending programmes which, to be clear, are larger than any Labour Party has ever proposed.

I agree Labour had a remarkable result which I did not foresee. I pay tribute to Jeremy Corbyn’s temperament in the campaign, to the campaign’s mobilisation of younger voters and to the enthusiasm it generated.

His supporters shouldn't exaggerate it; but his critics including me shouldn't under-state it. He tapped into something real and powerful, as Bernie Sanders has in the USA and left groups have done all over Europe.

There is a genuine and widespread desire for change and for the politics of social justice.

This should alter the context in which we debate politics; and help influence the policy solutions.

But it doesn't alter the judgement about the risks of an unchanged Corbyn programme, if he became Prime Minister and tried to implement it at the same time as Brexit.

If a right wing populist punch in the form of Brexit was followed by a left wing populist punch in the form of unreconstructed hard left economics, Britain would hit the canvas, flat on our back and be out for a long count.

The conventional wisdom is that the centre ground in British politics is now marginalised.

It is true that the country didn't vote for centrist politics on June 8; but neither was it on offer.

The space for the centre may seem smaller; but the need for it is ever bigger.

The poll shows that a majority in all three countries still identify most with the centre of politics; and that the policies people want, are those which produce real change but from basically a centrist position.

Both Parties now face a fundamental choice of direction. The Tories could go back to the direction of David Cameron in the style of Ruth Davidson. Or they could stick with the politics of the last year, defined by Brexit and immigration.

Labour’s leadership could champion a position on Europe radically distinct from the Tories and reach out to those in the PLP with experience of Government to craft a programme of credibility as well as change.

Or they could dismiss the need for compromise and double down in their efforts to make their takeover of the Labour Party complete.

The Labour Party should be cautious in thinking ‘one more heave’ will deliver victory next time.

The Corbyn campaign was a positive factor in the election result; but the determining factor was the Tory campaign.

In all the elections since 1979, the result at the end was more or less what I expected at the beginning.

Not this time. There is no doubt in my mind that at the beginning of the campaign the public were indeed about to give the Tories a landslide. After all, we had just had a really poor local election result, a normally reliable predictor.

What happened is a perfect illustration of why the Greeks were right that hubris is always followed by nemesis.

Their error was less in calling the election than in the conduct of it.

The winning strategy was the one they started with: Theresa May is a Leader above party, asking for a strong negotiating hand to get the best Brexit deal.

But instead of keeping to it, they shattered it.

Brexit policy turned into Hard Brexit or ‘No Deal’ Brexit, rather than the ‘best deal for Britain’. The manifesto was not above party but absolutely of the Tory Party: austerity, typical tough Tory policy on social care and school meals, plus fox hunting.

The public recoiled.

The 16m who voted Remain realised they had to vote to defeat the Brexit mandate she was seeking. Anyone who cared about the public realm, and wished for an end to or an amelioration of austerity, understood this was their only opportunity to register that wish.

Not foreseeable; but on reflection completely explicable.

The Labour electoral performance was unexpected. But that is exactly why we have to be careful in interpreting it. Victories in Kensington and Canterbury were amazing. But losses in Middlesbrough and Stoke were equally alarming.

The Corbyn enthusiasm, especially amongst the young, is real, but I would hesitate before saying that all those who voted Labour voted to make him Prime Minister; or that they supported the body of the programme rather than its tone.

I think they thought that the likelihood was that the Tories would be the Government, but were determined to neuter the mandate.

This is why you could have – another unique dimension to the election – candidates standing for Labour overtly distancing from Jeremy Corbyn and yet still being elected, some with big majorities.

The common refrain amongst some Labour MPs is the policies were popular and if we retain them and unite we will win next time.

We should beware our own form of hubris.

The Tories are not going to run another campaign like that one.

Next time, Labour’s economic programme will come under vastly greater scrutiny. No one is going to believe that there is not a real possibility of Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister. The campaign mishaps which happened every time the spending figures were put under the spotlight won't pass so easily.

Understandably, some Labour MPs who, only weeks ago, thought their best hope of salvation rested on disassociation from the Leader, now feel disoriented.

But policies which were wrong in May didn't suddenly become right in June.

Many in this election voted with profound reluctance. There were an unusual number of voters making up their mind very late.

Ultimately neither Party won a majority.

It is true that politics has changed dramatically from 10 years ago.

Our poll shows people want change and by large numbers and in all three countries. Years of austerity and an acute sense of an elite separated from the rest has led to a belief that the promise of generational progress has ended. This generation believes it has done better than the last. But it does not believe the next generation will do better than them.

That is the market of anxiety in which the populists peddle quack solutions.

But the poll also shows that support for the centre stays strong. People will default to populism when a radical centre is not on offer; where it is, they will vote it in, as Macron has shown.

I am not advocating a new Party. Quite apart from the desirability of such a thing, our political system puts formidable barriers in its path.

In any event, as a member of the Labour Party of over 40 years standing, I want the Labour Party to capture this ground.

But there are millions of politically homeless in Britain. They are not going to wander the by-ways of politics, bedding down uncomfortably, forever, not with their country in the dire shape it is in.

The challenge for the centre is to be the place of changing the status quo not managing it.

If it does, it still beats everything else.

What the progressive centre lacks is a radical policy agenda. This is the most immediate task and the one to which my new Institute is devoted.

One of the most dispiriting aspects of the election campaign was the absence of serious debate about the real challenges Britain faces.

AI, automation and Big Data will usher in a new workplace revolution. The NHS, our school and skills system, ‘early years’ education, welfare and retirement need to be re-designed fundamentally to take account of technology, scientific development, and changing demographics and lifestyle.

Communities and people left behind by globalisation need to be helped by specific measures which connect them to the mainstream economy.

The infrastructure of Britain has to be built anew to link up the regions of the country and take advantage of our assets – geography, history, language and a culture which, despite everything, the world still admires.

We need an ambitious affordable housing programme.

Austerity should end; but its’ ending should place an even greater responsibility on Government to seek solutions which change systems and not just pump money into them.

Britain has to escape the cul de sac of backward-looking pessimism with a programme of national renaissance, drawing on the best and most creative minds, to produce the new thinking which can shape our future; and can re-kindle optimism.

This is why Brexit matters so much. It is not merely damaging in itself; it is a massive distraction. Whilst other countries are moving down the fast lane of progress, we are stuck on the hard shoulder of nostalgia.

In this time of accelerating change, we are offered two different types of conservativism, one of the right and one of the left.

The election was fought like one from the 1980s, but with two competing visions of the 1960s.

Neither answers the call of the future.

Politics today are volatile and unpredictable. In these times, best hold to what you believe.

The centre may appear marginalised; but in the hearts and minds of many, it simply needs to be renewed.

Brexit makes this renewal urgent.

Buyer's Remorse and Brexit ((12/07/17)

Now this is interesting!The Herald reports that a senior Conservative figure in Scotland is expressing 'buyer's remorse' over the way Brexit is working out.If only Jeremy Corbyn could ste aside his personal prejudices and show some real political leadership, this whole leaving the EU business 'come what may' would be up for grabs.Because as I've said before no one voted for the nonsense of leaving the EU Single Market and the Customs Union in which case there is no logical reason to regard the result of the 2016 EU referendum as sacrosanct.If the facts and circumstances change, people are perfectly entitled to change their views.

Writing in The Herald, the veteran Tory echoed grave concerns expressed in this newspaper's Beyond Brexit series last month by both economists and farming analysts.

No One Voted For This Nonsense (04/07/17)

Morten Morland's cartoon for The Times has the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the ring fighting for 'Hard Brexit' - with Theresa May and Nigel Farage both urging him on as seconds.

Which begs the question that with everything that has happened since the June 2016 referendum - why is the Labour Party still going along with this nonsense?Because no one actually voted to leave the EU's Single Market, or the Customs Union or a Brexit that looks like costing the country billions of pounds a year.

Corbyn Fans (03/07/16)

Nigel Farage rows in on Twitter to show his support for Jeremy Corbyn's 'have your cake and eat it' approach to Brexit.

Not the Messiah (02/07/17)

The Times cartoonist Peter Brookes has some fun with Jeremy Corbyn's policy on Brexit because, if truth be told, the Labour leader is a left-wing 'ideologue' who has vehemently opposed the UK's membership of the European Union for many years, on the bogus grounds that the EU is a 'bosses club'. So while Chuka Umanna (in the background) tells the faithful that Jeremy Corbyn really isn't the 'Messiah', the Labour leader continues to pretend that the UK can leave the EU while at the same time preserving all benefits of remaining in the EU which is completely crazy, of course.Freedom of movement within the EU is a great benefit to many UK citizens, younger and older alike, yet that is one of the reasons for Jeremy Corbyn setting his face against continued membership of the Single Market.

Impossible Things (30/06/17)

My understanding of Labour party policy on Brexit is that its leader firmly support the UK leaving the European Union (EU), so long as the country continues to enjoy all the benefits of being a member of the EU.Which sounds like the political equivalent of being a little bit pregnant, if you ask me - it's the same as having your slice of cake and eating it at the same time.

In the first test of his leadership since the general election, Jeremy Corbyn yesterday ordered Labour MPs to abstain over a vote in the House of Commons to stay within the Single Market and the Customs Union, both of which have major implications for jobs and future growth in the UK economy.

Three shadow ministers (Ruth Cadbury, Andy Slaughter and Catherine West), were sacked for defying their leader's order and and a fourth (Daniel Zeichner) resigned before he could be shown the door.

UK politics has an 'Alice in Wonderland' feel to it these days with arch-rebel Jeremy Corbyn demanding loyalty from his troops and believing that 'six impossible things before breakfast' is perfectly realistic.

Which is complete nonsense, of course, as the UK's mad march towards Brexit will show us all in the weeks and months ahead.

A Question of Leadership (29/06/17)

The big political news on Twitter right now is that Jeremy Corbyn is to whip Labour MPs into 'abstaining' on an amendment which would commit to membership of the EU's single market.

Now given that the majority of Labour supporters voted to remain in the Europe, along with the majority of Scots and a majority of young voters, you would think Jezza would set aside his personal hostility towards the EU and support this amendment from one of his own backbenchers, Labour MP Chuka Umanna.

Because an awful lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the EU referendum in June 2016 which never specifically asked voters for their views on the pros and cons of leaving the Single Market and/or the Customs Union.

About Me

Mark is an independent consultant with a wide range of clients in the public, private and 'not for profit' sectors - both in the UK and Europe.
In a previous life, Mark spent 20 years as a senior trade union official - latterly as Unison's Head of Local Government and Chief Negotiator in Scotland. Contact Mark by e-mail at: markirvine@compuserve.com